"In 2019, as an entrepreneur in residence at Alphabet's X, the Moonshot Factory, Sarah Russell created Bellwether, which harnesses AI and data to assess natural disaster risk and mitigate impact on communities. Bellwether forecasts probabilities for severe weather, provides aerial images to first responders, and helps insurers understand disaster risk. When Hurricane Helene struck last September, the tool processed 75,000 images from Civil Air Patrol in a matter of minutes rather than days."
"Andrew Heifetz, CEO, Ampsight ( acquired in May 2025 by Vibrint, where Heifetz is now chief strategy officer), Sterling, VA As CEO of Ampsight, Heifetz launched "AmpArena" innovation competitions so that cross-functional teams can test emerging technologies, stress-test internal tools, and propose new solutions outside of their daily responsibilities. Ely Greenfield, chief technology officer, digital media, Adobe, San Jose Greenfield has overseen the development of Firefly, Adobe's generative AI model that has been used to generate more than 20 billion assets around the globe."
Sarah Russell founded Bellwether at X to apply AI and data for natural disaster risk assessment and community impact mitigation. Bellwether generates probabilistic forecasts for severe weather, delivers aerial imagery to first responders, and helps insurers quantify disaster exposure. During Hurricane Helene, Bellwether processed 75,000 Civil Air Patrol images in minutes instead of days. Russell also practices emergency medicine and is an assistant professor at Stanford School of Medicine, and she captained Harvard's 1998 women's basketball team that upset Stanford. Finalists include Andrew Heifetz, who launched AmpArena innovation competitions at Ampsight, and Ely Greenfield, who led Adobe's Firefly development.
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